Read fast

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Speed Reading is one of the reading strategies and represents the ability, faster than average for texts read and yet the content of the text to understand . It is similar to the less systematic cross- reading .

Ability to read quickly

In order to be able to measure the ability of a person to read quickly, the factors of reading speed and text comprehension must be checked at the same time: Reading skills must not suffer from a high reading speed . In fact, this depends on reading skills: If a reader exceeds a certain reading speed, research by Ronald P. Carvers shows that his reading skills will decrease in an approximately inverse proportion.

While it was initially considered controversial whether fast reading can be trained, this fact is widely accepted in science due to various apparently successful techniques for fast reading. With the learnable techniques of fast reading, experienced readers can achieve values ​​of 800 to 1500 words read per minute without significantly reducing the comprehension of the text. The average skilled reader who does not use fast-reading techniques, however, assumes an average of about 250 words per minute. Some fast readers achieved significantly higher values ​​of over 4000 words per minute over longer periods of time. The world record in speed reading is said to be held by Anne Jones, who is said to have read the book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in a time of 47 minutes, which results in a reading value of 4,251 words per minute.

As early as 1969, G. Harry McLaughlin examined a large group of high-speed readers and discovered a person he referred to as "Miss L" who could read texts with peaks of up to 9,000 words per minute at an average speed of 3,750 words per minute - so such values ​​seem reachable by the fastest readers. Other studies indicate that they have identified people with much higher reading speeds (Shell 1970: several participants with over 20,000 words per minute, one person with 41,000 words per minute), but the validity of these studies is questioned.

Reading process

When reading a text by an experienced reader - even without fast reading techniques - fewer individual letters are recorded, but words and word groups are recognized by the brain without reading the individual letters one after the other. How long the word groups recognized by the brain as a unit can be varies from person to person and is influenced by the design of the text.

In principle, only a small part of the existing letters is clearly captured when reading. The main criterion for capturing text is the recognition of words or phrases. These word groups can be recorded as a whole, since the reader has already saved them for the most part as an image including meaning. The prerequisite for this is that the brain knows the word group, the individual word or at least individual word components. If the brain can classify groups of words in the semantic context of the text, this significantly increases reading speed. The size of the word groups recorded as a whole depends on the individual ability of the reader as well as on the design of the text image, e.g. the font used, and the framework conditions.

Texts in serif fonts can tend to be read faster and the mixed use of uppercase and lowercase letters, as in the German written language, improves the conditions for high reading speed. Text arranged in columns is also beneficial , as the text can sometimes be absorbed by the brain line by line. Since there is still visual acuity around the fovea centralis , it is also conceivable that particularly fast readers can capture several lines at the same time. In research, however, it is controversial whether the information is then recorded serially or in parallel by the brain.

Scientific investigations

Interest in the techniques of fast reading increased in the 1950s, when theses were made by various scientists about the learnability of fast reading techniques. Evelyn Wood claimed that increases in reading speed from 250 to 1000 words per minute could be achieved through the use of certain techniques. Wood later put forward theses about "natural quick readers"; This refers to people who, without the conscious application of specific techniques, achieve significantly higher reading speeds than the average experienced reader. These theses were the subject of various scientific investigations in the course of the following decades, but could ultimately neither be confirmed nor refuted due to the difficulties of the evidence. In the same way, there were scientists in the 1960s who strongly questioned the techniques of fast reading: Homa related the abilities of fast reading to the ability to scroll quickly, and Spache quantified the maximum possible reading speed at “800 to 900 words per Minute".

A meta-study by Musch and Rösler in 2011 showed that research in the field of fast reading, especially with regard to the investigation of reading speeds of test subjects, is subject to an above-average number of methodological deficiencies and is dominated by popular scientific literature , which does not provide meaningful results. Overall, there is agreement in the specialist literature that there are groups of people with fast readers and individuals with extremely good fast reading skills. On the other hand, the question of the extent to which these skills can be specifically learned through techniques is controversial.

In 2015, Stiftung Warentest conducted comparative tests to check the effectiveness of some speed reading training courses. A 50 percent increase in reading speed was found in some test subjects, with text comprehension decreasing in isolated cases.

Doubts about the text comprehension of fast readers

Critics suggest that high-speed readers absorb less information from the text they read than people who read this text at the usual pace of up to 300 words per minute. This assumption seems initially verifiable, but could neither be confirmed nor refuted in various studies on fast readers. In a study by the psychologist Bruce L. Brown of Brigham Young University in 1981, the reading proficiency of normal speed readers was explicitly compared with that of fast readers: Both achieved a level of comprehension of 65%, with the fast readers reading the text five to six times faster . The thesis that the understanding of the text suffers significantly as a result has not yet been confirmed in any scientifically tenable study. However, a 2016 meta study by Keith Rayner, Elizabeth Schotter and other researchers at the University of California at San Diego showed that fast reading leads to poorer understanding of the text.

See also

literature

  • Buzan, Tony: Speed ​​Reading: Read faster - understand more - remember better, mvg-Verlag 2017
  • Dehaene, Stanislas: Reading. The greatest invention of mankind and what happens in our heads during it, Munich 2012
  • Garbe, Christine / Holle, Karl / Jesch, Tatjana: Reading texts. Reading competence - text comprehension - reading didactics - reading socialization, Paderborn 2010
  • Günther Emlein, Wolfgang A. Kasper: Reading areas. VAK Verlag for Applied Kinesiology, Freiburg im Breisgau 2000, ISBN 3-932098-44-7 .
  • Jochen Müsseler: Peripheral and central processes when reading. In: Gert Rickheit, Theo Herrmann, Werner Deutsch (Eds.): Psycholinguistik Psycholinguistics. An international manual . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, pp. 600–608.
  • Jochen Musch, Peter Rösler: Fast reading: What is the limit of human reading speed? In: M. Dresler (Ed.): Cognitive performance. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg 2011, pp. 89-106. doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-8274-2809-7_6
  • Peter Rösler: Basics of fast reading. exclam! Verlag, Düsseldorf 2016, ISBN 978-3-943736-09-0 , PDF .
  • Radach, Ralph: Eye movements while reading, (Internationale Hochschulschriften Bd. 216) Münster, New York 1996.
  • Radach, Ralph / Günther, Thomas / Huestegge, Lynn: Eye movements while reading, reading development and dyslexia, in: Learning and learning disorders, Vol. 1, H. 3, Sept. 2012, pp. 185–204.
  • Radach, Ralph / Vorstius, Christian / Fürth, Sebastian: Speed ​​Reading - The vision of quick understanding, in: OUTPUT. Scientific journal of the Bergische Universität Wuppertal, No. 15 (2016), 18–23.
  • Rosebrock, Cornelia / Nix, Daniel: Research overview: Reading fluency (Fluency) in American reading research and didactics, in: Didaktik Deutsch, 20, 2006, pp. 90–112.
  • Scheele, Paul R .: PhotoReading: The new high-speed reading method in practice, Junfermann Verlag, revised and expanded new edition 2008
  • Schmitz, Wolfgang: Read faster - understand better, Rowohlt Taschenbuch, 6th edition of the revised edition 2013, ISBN 978-3-499-63045-3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ronald P. Carver: Reading rate: a review of research and theory . Academic Press, San Diego 1990.
  2. ↑ D. Homa: An assessment of two extraordinary speed readers . In: Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society . No. 21 , 1983, p. 123-126 .
  3. ↑ Jochen Musch, Peter Rösler: Schnell -lesen: What is the limit of the human reading speed? In: Martin Dresler (Ed.): Cognitive Achievements: Intelligence and Mental Abilities in the Mirror of Neuroscience . Springer Science + Business Media , 2011, ISBN 3-8274-2809-2 .
  4. ↑ a b Jonathan Sierck: Experts in speed reading. Retrieved February 18, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Tonio Postel: Three quarters of an hour for Harry. In: time online . November 23, 2007, accessed February 18, 2015 .
  6. ^ G. Harry McLaughlin: Reading at impossible speeds . In: Journal of Reading . tape 12 , no. 6 , March 1969, p. 449-454, 502-510 .
  7. ↑ Jochen Musch, Peter Rösler: Schnell -lesen: What is the limit ... 2011, p. 102.
  8. ↑ Martina Ziefle: Reading on the screen . Waxmann Verlag , ISBN 3-8309-6068-9 .
  9. ↑ Jochen Musch, Peter Rösler: Schnell -lesen: What is the limit ... 2011, p. 94.
  10. ^ Evelyn Wood: A New Method of Teaching Reading . In: CA Ketcham (Ed.): Proceedings of the College Reading Association . tape 2 , 1961, p. 58-61 .
  11. ↑ DG Spache: Is this a breakthrough in reading? In: The Reading Teacher . No. 15 , 1962, pp. 258-262 .
  12. ↑ Jochen Musch, Peter Rösler: Schnell -lesen: What is the limit ... 2011, p. 99.
  13. ↑ Jochen Musch, Peter Rösler: Schnell -lesen: What is the limit ... 2011, p. 104f.
  14. ↑ Read faster - Test Stiftung Warentest. Retrieved February 1, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Reading training in the test: How to become a fast reader. Stiftung Warentest , February 26, 2015, accessed on April 5, 2015 .
  16. ^ BL Brown et al.: An analysis of the rapid reading controversy . In: JR Edwards (Ed.): The Social Psychology of Reading . Silver Spring: Institute of Modern Languages, 1981, pp. 29-50 .
  17. ↑ Jochen Musch, Peter Rösler: Schnell -lesen: What is the limit ... 2011, p. 103.
  18. ↑ Turbo reading is of little use: fast reading strategies lead to poor understanding of the text , scinexx.de, January 18, 2016
  19. ↑ Keith Rayner, Elizabeth R. Schotter, Michael EJ Masson, Mary C. Potter, Rebecca Treiman: So Much to Read, So Little Time: How Do We Read, and Can Speed ​​Reading Help? , Psychological Science, Jan. 14, 2016